Word Origin & History

"net-like arrangement of threads, wires, etc.," 1550s, from net (n.) + work (n.). Extended sense of "any complex, interlocking system" is from 1839 (originally in reference to transport by rivers, canals, and railways). Meaning "broadcasting system of multiple transmitters" is from 1914; sense of "interconnected group of people" is from 1947.

Example Sentences for network

The presents which they sent to our General, were feathers, and cauls of network.

His existence was becoming a network of great and little details.

A slim vane turned with the wind, a network of rods atop a high pole.

In the network of crooked channels no white man could find his way.

What network of crime and mystery is this that is thrown around him?

It was like the sea round whose shores its network of city-states was strung.

Sanctuaries must have covered the Euphrates Valley like a network.

The soil of Africa held him prisoner in a network of forests and lianas.